The MRI apparatus is an imaging diagnostic apparatus which magnetically excites nuclear spins of an object set in a static magnetic field with RF signals having the Larmor frequency and reconstructs images based on MR (magnetic resonance) signals generated due to the excitation.
In an MRI apparatus, a PAC (phased array coil) in which many coil elements are arranged is often used as a reception RF coil of MR signals. In recent years, the number of coil elements included in a PAC tends to increase and there is a demand for selecting and using desired coil elements. Accordingly, a variety of techniques for switching coil elements used for an imaging are devised.
An object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and an RF coil unit which can switch coil elements with a simpler configuration.